Apparatus for heating water.



N0. sas,|4|. Patented Oct. 3|, I899.

- E. w. HIGBEE.

APPARATUS FOR HEATING WATER.

(Application filed Apr. 10, 1898.) (No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet I.

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No. 636,l4l. Patente-d'Oct. 3|, I899.

E. w; HIGBEE.

APPARATUS FOR HEATING WAi'ER.

(Application filed A 'r. 19, 1898.) (No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 HI HOT WATER FRONT,IN RANGE UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

EDWIN W. HIGBEE, OF NORTHAMPTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

APPARATUS FOR HEATING WATER.

SPECIFICATION formin part of Letters Patent Nb. 636,141, dated October 31, 1899.

Application filed April 1 9, 1898.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, EDWIN W. HIGBEE, a citizen of the United States of America, residing at Northampton, in the county of Hampshire and State of Massachusetts, have invented new and useful Improvements in Apparatus for Heating Water, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to water-heating devices, and particularly to means for utilizing steam at low pressure for that purpose, such as is commonly used in the ordinary househeating systems, and which by reason of its low temperature has not heretofore been available for this purpose; and the object of the invention is the construction of an apparatus whereby the temperature of low-pressure steam may be imparted so gradually to the water to be heated that complete condensation will not take place in the steam-pipe.

The invention consists in the construction, as fully hereinafter described, and pointed out in the claim.

In the drawings forming part of this specification, Figure 1 shows a water-tank with which steam connections are provided from a radiator supply-pipe of a low=pressure steamheating system. Fig; 2 is aview showing the application of the'invention to boilers heated by connections running to the fire-box of a cooking-stove and showing means for either heating the water in said boiler when there is no fire in said stove or acting as an auxiliary heater in conjunction with the heat of said stove. Fig. 3 is a section through the boiler on line 2 2, Fig. 2. Fig. 4 is a perspective view of a support for a pipe. Figs. 5 and 6 are longitudinal sections through a boiler, showing difierent ways of applying this invention to a water-receptacle.

Referring to the drawings, A represents a steam-heating boiler, a the live-steam pipe, at the return-pipes, and B the radiators, all of the usual construction.

In Fig. 1 is shown parts of two floors of a building, showing the steam heating apparatus thereof, and on the upper floor is a watertank D, from which warm water may be supplied by gravity to said building as desired, and this mode of supplying hot water is particularly applicable to apartments wherein Serial No. 678j150. (No model.)

no other means of furnishing such a supply is provided, which apartments are generally supplied with steam heating apparatus, such as business blocks, &c. A tubular passage 0 is provided through said water-tank D, extending from one side thereof, as shown in Figs. 1 and 5, or through the bottom thereof, as shown in Fig. 2, and from thence leading up through the water in the tank and out through the top of the latter. Whether the tank be open, as shown in Fig. 1, or a sealed receptacle, as shown in Fig. 2, is immaterial. Said passage 0 consists of a tube 0, of metal of good heat-conductin g quality, and it serves as a jacket for a steam-pipe, thereby preventing contact of the latter with the Water, which would immediately condense said steam and produce a cold dead end, so called, and arrest all circulation of said steam through said steam-pipe. The annular space between the inner surface of the jacket and the steampipe located in said jacket is substantially closed in practice by the pipe-supportingcol- 1ar,'(shown in Fig. 4,) which is secured to the said pipe either at one end or both ends of said jacket. Said steam-pipe connection with said water-tank D is effected by carrying a pipe I) from any convenient point on said live-steam pipe at up to the said water-tank and through said passage 0, and on the extremity of said pipe is secured an automatic valve F, whereby steam circulation is maintained therein. Said valve is of the type known as f rod-traps, which operates by the expansion by heat of a plug which under the action of such expansion closes the outlet of said valve and by the contraction of said plug opens said outlet, allowing steam to pass out in small quantity until the heat of said steam has caused sui'ficient expansion in said plug to again close said outlet. A suitable valve 1) for controlling said pipe I) is provided. Such a valve is fully describedin the United States Letters Patent issued to Jenkins on August 27, 1889, No. 409,685.

The relative areas of the tube 0 exposed to the water and the surface of the live-steam pipe I) are such that at no time will the temperature of the passage 0 be so reduced as to cause complete condensation of the steam in said pipe 0. which passes through said passage; but the heat from said steam-pipe is gradually imparted to said metal tube 0 and through it to the water.

It has been found in practice that by varying the diameter, and consequently the area, of the tube 0 more or less of a given temperature in the steam may be imparted to the water in the tank and with a given pressure of steam a given temperature may be imparted to the water in the tank as much below the normal temperature of the steam as may be desired, and this temperature may be maintained with but slight variations and never exceeded, which characteristic is very important in many of the uses to which this invention may be applied.

Another application of this invention, differing only in the form of its application, is seen in Fig. 2, where the pipe b is shown extending through a hot-water boiler E, so called, of a cooking stove or range. This is connected by a pipe with the fire-box of the range, as usual, as illustrated in said Fig. 2 and indicated byf. The said pipe I) is connected to the live-steam pipe at and passes through the passage 0, similar to the one shown in the water-tank D, except that it runs straight through said boiler instead of entering the side thereof and extending up through the end. By means of this construction the heat from the pipe I) may be used as auxiliary to the heat in the fire-box or it may be used alone to heat the water in the boiler when there is no fire in said stove.

Fig. 3 illustrates the relative positions of the pipes in the sealed boilerE, and Fig. 4is a view of a support for, a pipe b, which extends through said boiler E, and whereby said pipe is kept out of contact with the walls of the passage 0. This support forms no part of the invention, however, and any other means for doing what it does will answer every purpose.

This invention does not lie in any particular adaptation of it to heat water in a certain place, but in so applying the heat of lowpressure steam that it is gradually imparted to the water it is to heat and in the use of an automatic valve for maintaining a circulation of live steam through the heating-pipe proportionate to the loss of heat (and consequent condensation) sustained by the steam in said pipe and imparted to the water in the tank through which said pipe passes.

Incidental'to the above is the means for controlling the maximum temperature which may be imparted to the water by establishing a certain proportion between the heat-absorbing surface (the tube O) and heat-radiating surface (the pipe 17) under a given steampressure.

Figs. 5 and 6 show difierent ways of applying the tube 0' to hot-water boilers.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

In combination with a low-pressure steamheating system, a water-receptacle, a tubular passage therethrough of heat-conducting material, a steam-pipe extending through said passage, means for substantially closing the ends of said passage and for supporting said steam-pipe, a connection between said steampipe and a live-steam pipe of said system, and an automatic valve in the steam-pipe in said passage located at a point beyond the exit of said pipe from said passage for controlling the flow of steam therethrough, whereby the maximum temperature to be imparted to the water in said receptacle may be controlled, substantially as described.

E. \V. HIGBEE.

\Vitnesses:

WM. H. CHAIIN, K. I. CLEMONS. 

